Ramelow: Adjust budget to the realities
According to Minister President Bodo Ramelow (Left Party), Thuringia's state government is adapting its record budget of 13.8 billion euros to the realities of the situation. "The CDU has given us the task of not completely emptying the coffers and we are therefore leaving a cushion of 700 million euros for the future state government," Ramelow told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (Friday). This Friday, Ramelow will meet with CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt in the state parliament in Erfurt. The meeting will focus on the search for a budget compromise for 2024.
The red-red-green coalition does not have its own majority in the state parliament, four votes short. Ramelow's coalition is therefore always dependent on the votes of the opposition or their abstention in votes when making decisions. Ramelow said: "A minority government is not the end of the world, but it's not something I would want again either."
The budget process looks "much more muddled in public than it is", Thuringia's head of government told the newspaper. "We need a budget that creates reliability." The budget is "not big enough for reforms at the moment, but that is not unusual when you don't have a majority. The opposition is just as unable to push through large drafts," said the Left Party politician.
The ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on the federal budget also has an indirect impact on Thuringia. The state's special coronavirus fund will now be dissolved and parliament will decide how the funds are to be used. "We are currently examining the consequences of the ruling for investments that we have relied on."
The government, led by Minister President Ramelow, is considering how much of the 13.8 billion euro budget to spend, keeping in mind the need to leave a cushion for the future state government. In times of a minority government, households and other sectors in Thuringia rely on the coalition's ability to secure votes or abstentions from the opposition to make budget decisions.
Source: www.dpa.com
